Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Southend-on-Sea
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southend-on-Sea
Online substance use counselling for Southend-on-Sea, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Southend-on-Sea, from the seafront and the pier to the streets around the longest pleasure pier in the world, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you
In and around Southend-on-Sea
Substance Use Counselling for Southend-on-Sea, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Southend-on-Sea: from the seafront and the pier to Westcliff, Leigh-on-Sea and Shoeburyness
- Known for
- The longest pleasure pier in the world, the seafront and the estuary
- Region
- East of England (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Livewell Southend's drug and alcohol advice
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Southend-on-Sea
Why do people in Southend-on-Sea reach out?
Drug use in Southend spans a wide range, from cocaine on a Saturday night by the seafront to long-standing daily use in the harder-pressed streets behind the resort. The rate of deaths from drug misuse here was 6.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, and 5.1 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, above the England average of 4.5 per 1,000. Those two figures together describe a town where the problem is real and where a good number of people do eventually reach for help, often much later than they wanted to.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Southend-on-Sea
WestcliffLeigh-on-SeaShoeburynessThorpe BayPrittlewellChalkwellSouthchurchEastwoodGreat Wakering
Wherever you are in Southend-on-Sea, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Southend-on-Sea
Official figures for Southend-on-Sea, for context rather than as a description of you.
5.1 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, above the England average of 4.5 per 1,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Adults in treatment at specialist drug misuse services (2020/21).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 6.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
What is substance use counselling, in practice?
Substance use counselling here is non-judgemental and one-to-one, working with the pain, fear or loneliness the substance has been managing, at a pace that protects your sense of safety.
The approach does not change with the postcode, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full, the methods and what each session covers, on substance use counselling in detail, alongside the practical side and professional standards and registration.
What happens in an online session?
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link, held to the same BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call, you join from any private space on a phone, tablet or laptop.
Everything takes place over secure video, since there is no premises here and Bradley works from Hove. That avoids the awkwardness of being recognised outside a service in a town where Leigh-on-Sea, Prittlewell and Southchurch all feel like villages. Sessions can be arranged around seasonal hours, airport shifts or a train timetable, and having used in the days before an appointment changes nothing about your welcome.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What sort of things do people bring?
The false self
Letting go of the protective self that no longer serves you.
Specialised attention
One-to-one sessions shaped entirely around you.
Self-discovery
Rediscovering the authentic self beneath the coping.
Anxiety and low mood
Treating what the substance has been masking.
Sustainable change
Growing into recovery rather than forcing it.
Substance Use Counselling in Southend-on-Sea
Why people in Southend-on-Sea come for substance use counselling
Nothing here is conditional on having decided to stop. People arrive using daily, using at weekends, or cutting down and dismayed at what comes up when they do. The work is interested in function rather than in quantity: the drug that makes a crowded summer shift bearable, the one that fills a dead February evening, the one that keeps something older out of view. None of that can be looked at honestly under disapproval, so disapproval has no place in it. For the clinical side, including substitute prescribing, testing and harm reduction, STARS provides it free through the Forward Trust, and Livewell Southend's drug and alcohol advice explains how to get there. SECE Mind holds the anxiety and low mood that so often accompany regular use. There is no conflict between using a free service for the practical side and paying for an hour of your own to think in.
A free, unhurried first step
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callDrug, alcohol & addiction support in Southend-on-Sea
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Southend-on-Sea, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Livewell Southend's drug and alcohol advice.
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
If you need urgent help now
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Southend-on-Sea questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southend-on-Sea: common questions
Do I need to be abstinent to begin?
No, and most people are not. You can be using through the week and still get real value from the hour. The only limit is attending while intoxicated, because the conversation simply will not stay with you afterwards, which wastes your money.
Could this affect my job or an airport security check?
Nothing is disclosed to an employer, a licensing body, the police or your GP, and no NHS record is created. The one exception is a serious and immediate danger to life. People working in aviation or hospitality here often ask this before anything else.
What are the fees when work is seasonal?
Sessions cost £80 for an hour, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two hours, with a free 15-minute call first. Nothing is prepaid, so a quiet winter can mean fortnightly sessions rather than none, and you can return to weekly when the season picks up.
Would STARS be a better place to go?
It may be the right first step, and it costs nothing. STARS handles assessment, prescribing and group programmes across Southend. What these sessions add is one steady relationship and unhurried time on the reasons behind the use. The two sit together well.
My use only really happens in the summer season. Should I still bother?
Yes. Use that arrives with the season is doing a job connected to the work, the hours and the crowd around you. Looking at it in the quieter months, before the next summer starts, is considerably easier than trying to do it in August.
Do you have a room on the seafront I would visit?
No, I work entirely online from Hove, by secure video or phone. For Southend that means no travel and no waiting room; you take part from home or another private space, at a time that fits around work, the commute or the seasons.
Is online substance use counselling available in Southend, and when can I start?
Yes. I see people from Leigh-on-Sea to Shoeburyness online, with no local waiting list, so most begin within days. After a free 15-minute consultation we arrange a first session, shaped around seasonal work, the c2c commute into the City or family.
How much is substance use counselling privately compared with the NHS in Southend?
My sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, and the first 15-minute consultation is free. NHS substance support in Southend costs nothing but may take time, while private online work with me can start promptly and flexibly around your week.
Would substance use counselling be online, and can timing flex with seasonal work in Southend?
It is online only, from Hove by video or phone, not a room on the seafront. Because sessions are not tied to a clinic slot, we can shape a rhythm whether you are flat out in summer or quieter in winter, and evening times are available. You join from home.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southend-on-Sea, whenever you are ready
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available online across East of England: Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester. See all of East of England.
Also available in Southend-on-Sea: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
You may also find it useful to read about once an addict, always an addict? and three ways to handle a craving.
Within reach of Sussex? substance use counselling is offered in the room in Hove, where the room is as well as online; see the full list of areas.